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in reaction to the growing Sovietization of the
area and restrictions on Islamic religion and tra-
ditions. Initially, the movement was predomi-
nantly anti-Bolshevik and anti-Russian. The
anti-Bolshevik autonomous government in
Kokand employed some of the Basmachi as their
military force, and after the suppression of the
government by the
BOLSHEVIKS
, many of its
adherents, including the prime minister, Mustafa
Chokaev (1890-1941), fled to the Basmachi and
organized them as guerrillas. The movement
spread throughout the rural areas of Turkestan
and at times reduced the Soviet authorities to
the main cities and railways. In 1920, the move-
ment acquired a more distinct Islamic profile in
response to the strict enforcement of labor and
military conscription and the Soviet govern-
ment's attack on Muslim religious institutions.
The Basmachi received a new shot of energy
when the former war minister of the Ottoman
Empire, Enver Pasha, joined the movement in
November 1921. Shortly afterward the Bukha-
ran government also joined the cause, but the
impact was short-lived. Enver Pasha was killed
in 1922, and the Red Army offensives led first by
FRUNZE
and then
BUDENNYI
gradually overcame
Basmachi resistance. More significantly, the
Soviet government relaxed many of the restric-
tions on Islamic practices that had sparked the
initial opposition to its rule. By 1924, remnants
of Basmachi bands were limited to the moun-
tainous areas where they were intermittently
active until the early 1930s and again during
World War II.
commander. The political states to the west of
the Urals fell in rapid succession: the Volga Bul-
gar khanate in autumn 1237, the principality of
Ryazan in December 1237, and the principality
of Vladimir-Suzdal in February 1238. He then
turned southward, capturing Pereiaslavl and
Chernigov in 1239, and after a siege of 10 days,
the great city of Kiev in December 1240. The fol-
lowing spring, Batu's troops crossed into eastern
Europe, then turned southward, reaching the
Adriatic coast in the winter of 1241-42. News of
the death of Great Khan Ugedei compelled Batu
to suspend his campaigns and return to the
Mongol capital of Karakorum to be present at
the election of a successor. He refused to recog-
nize the election of Ugedei's son Guyuk as great
khan. Guyuk died in 1248, while preparing a
campaign against Batu. Despite Batu's seniority
he was not elected great khan, the honor passing
instead to a cousin and friend, Mongka. Although
a nominal subject of the great khan, the Mongol
Empire was now really broken into two parts,
with Batu the ruler of its western part, known as
the
GOLDEN HORDE
by Russian and Western his-
torians. Under Batu the Golden Horde controlled
vast territories from the Irtysh to the Dunai
River. His older brother ruled territories to the
east (northeast of the Aral Sea), known as the
White Horde and subject to Batu. The Russian
principalities, as vassal states, were required to
pay tribute. He established his capital on the
eastern banks of the Volga at Sarai-Batu (Old
Sarai), along a rich commercial trade route, near
ASTRAKHAN
.
Batu Khan
(1208?-1255)
Mongol conqueror
Batu—the second son of Juchi, oldest son of
Genghis (Chinggis) Khan—led the Mongol
armies that conquered Russia between 1237 and
1241. After the death of his father in 1227, Batu
became the head of his territories, which
included lands from the Irtysh River to the Ural
Mountains. In 1236, the long-planned Mongol
invasion of Russia was launched with Batu as its
Bazhenov, Vasili Ivanovich
(1737-1799)
architect
An immensely talented but unlucky architect,
Bazhenov was born in Kaluga province, near
Moscow, to a family of modest means. His father,
a sexton in the Moscow Kremlin, arranged for
the precocious Bazhenov to study with two
important late baroque architects, Ukhtomsky
and Chevakinsky. He entered the Academy of
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